i know this seems like a dumb question. i know i would need a PCI card with digital outs. but would i need a PCI card for EACH converter?

lets say i have:

lavry 4 ch AD (for recording in)
benchmark 2 ch DA (for monitoring)
apogee 16 ch DA (for summing into folcrom)

would i need a PCI card for each?

i only have 5 PCI slots in my computer, i plan to use 3 for UAD and 1 for powercore.


thanks for any suggestions

You don't need one card per converter. You just need enough (and the right) Digital Ins and Outs.
So you need an input that will understand the format coming out of the Lavry, and you need enough outputs of the kind the DAs understand (Benchmark probably AES, Apogee probably 2 ADAT inputs, isn't it?).
I don't know if there is ONE card that can do all of that - at least it won't be the cheapest one - but if you search a bit, you'll probably find something. Start with RME, they make lots of different interfaces which all connect to a PCI card (so you have one card and one external device which you connect your ADs and DAs to).

1 adat port can carry 8 channels of ADAT. If you got something like the RME HDSP 96/52 (PCI card w/expansion card,) it has 6 adat ports (3in and 3 out.) That would enable you to have 24in/24out worth of ADAT. You'll need a seperate ADAT port for each different device, I believe. And I'm pretty sure the Lavry doesn't have optical...AES->SPDIF, maybe?

Also, you may wanna be careful with all those PCI cards. Lots of people have enough trouble getting just one UAD card to work, let alone three UADs and a Powercore card and a PCI sound card. There are a lot of things to consider when setting up multiple PCI devices for PC. Do some searches here and on the DUC. Have you built your system yet?

I have a Motu 2408 MK3. It's PCI and can be bought for under $1K. It has 3x ADAT ins and outs for a total of 24 each way. It also has 8 of it's own analog ins and outs with AD/DA. I use it with two Rosetta 800's, but it could be used with up to three different devices. I clock the whole set up with a Big Ben and use the Rosettas for tracking up to 16 tracks as well as sending 24 tracks (16x Rosettas, 8x Motu) into my Daking console for mixing. The master is returned to Channels 1 & 2 of the 1st Rosetta after summing in the Daking.

Assuming all of the converters use ADAT, you could use ADAT IN 1 for the Lavry, ADAT OUTS 1 & 2 for summing 16x tracks from the Apogee, and ADAT OUT 3 for monitoring with the benchmark.

When I'm mixing, I monitor off of the Daking, so I don't need an extra set of D/A. Can you monitor from the Folcrom? That will allow for 24 channels out when summing. You could add a Rosetta for that purpose and also gain 8 more inputs for tracking live drums.

I'm definitely no expert in all of this, it was very difficult for me to get my routing set up to actually be able to mix 24 tracks and easily change between monitoring from the DAW and switching to the Daking when mixing. Now it's just a matter of changing a few patch cables.

RME 9652 it has 3 ADATS and SPDIF I/O's, if you have ADAT outs on your apogee that takes care of your apogee DA, then buy Alesis AI3 (ADAT to AES-EBU conversion ) it has 8 AES-EBU ins/outs to take care of your Lavry AD's and Benchmark DA. Last thing is clocking them with your LAVRY, you need like Lucid clock distibutor for that, just hook up the clock output of your lavry to the clock input on the Lucid clock distributor and from there you have enough clock output, I beleive it has 6 clock outputs. Last thing, you to clock your RME card also. Have fun, PM me I'll be glad to assist.thumbsup

RME are fantastic for this sort of thing, with some crazy solid drivers also. I've been using RME (first a 9652, now a Digiface) with Nuendo for several years now and seriously...never had one burp or glitch.

Ever.

War

thank you all for the great suggestions. i appreciate it. i'm going to do researching on the rme cards and adat connections.

AlexLakis, i haven't started building the system yet. right now all i have is a multiface 2 and a couple of uad cards. i was just perplexed by this and figured i'd ask around.

thanks again !!

Not to hijack the thread......

But, would it not be wise to stick with one converter, so latencies are standard across all conversion?


David

i agree. maybe i don't need the benchmark AND the DA16x. maybe i'll just plan to monitor out the apogee/folcrom/pre's.

but i definitely want the lavry 4 ch AD. an engineer friend told me they are sweeeet.

so i'll probably wind up with 2 converters.

Maybe consider a Lynx AES16 and Z-Sys digital patch bay.

Haigbabe

I work with three different kind of D/A's also.


I have a Lynx B-Two card with the extra ADAT-card.
I have a Lavry Blue 2 A/D/A on the AES I/O of the Lynx card.
An RME adi 8 pro I have on the ADAT card of the Lynx.
And offcourse the Lynx his own outputs.

I only use the Lavry for A/D but I could use the Lynx A/D also.

Its all clocked to the Lavry and it works great.
One PCI card, 4 A/D's and 16 D/A's with different flavors.
(I'm planning to get the 16X instead of the adi 8)

gr. Tom

It seems like 'loop sync' and determining a master clock will suffice.

I'd go with cables. Definatley.